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Report, Showing Results of Fifteen 

Years of Organization, to the 

Teachers of Chicago 



Presented by 

The Chicago Teachers' Federation 

444 Unity Building, Chicago. 



TEN CENTS A COPY. 



GREETING. 

To tJie Teachers of Chicago: — 

With the accompanying summary of what organization has accomplished 
in fifteen years for the teachers of Chicago and statement of our principles 
and aims, the Chicago Teachers' Federation earnestly invites all teachers who 
have enjoyed and are now enjoying these fruits of organization to co-operate 
in accomplishing these purposes which have been endorsed with practical unan- 
imity by the entire teaching force of Chicago. 

Believing that the freedom and the material welfare of teachers are not only 
legitimate but from every professional point of view, most important questions, 
the Federation has endeavored since 1897 to unite the teaching force on this 
issue, for the purpose of securing" better conditions in the public schools, to the 
end that the children and the community may enjoy the right to receive from the 
teachers their highest professional service. If there has ever been a logical 
arraignment of the work, the purpose or the methods of the Federation, it has 
escaped our notice. 

While the lack of complete co-operation of the teaching force has retarded 
progress toward the realization of ideal conditions in the schools, yet, if no 
other results could be shown than the gain to the teachers themselves in broad- 
ened experience, deeper, ^wider and more intelligent sympathy for each other, 
for the children and for the community, which has come through working to- 
gether for mutual aid and the common good, we would still earnestly invite 
you to co-operate in the effort, for the pleasure and benefit of sharing these 
results. Respectfully submitted, 

The Chicago Teachers" Federation. 



Anna G. Baer, President. 



Frances E. Harden^ 

Corresponding Secretary. 



Chicago, Dec. i, 1908. 



Liz 

WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED IN FIFTEEN YEARS 
FOR THE TEACHERS OF CHICAGO. 



PENSION rOR TEACHERS. 
First Pension Law Passed in 1895. 

The First Pension Law for Teachers was secured from the IlHnois Legis- 
lature in 1895 through the organized work of the Chicago teachers during the 
year 1894, and this work was the outgrowth of the individual efforts of Mrs. 
Arvilla C. DeLuoe, begun three years earlier. 

From the beginning the teachers had the co-operation and assistance of the 
Board of Education as well as many of the principals. 

Pension Preserved During Optional Period. 



Through the strenuous and unceasing efforts of the Teachers' Federation 
and the Teachers' Club, together with organized and individual efforts of prin- 
cipals, teachers and others, the pension law was preserved during the critical and 
trying "optional" period (1901 to 1907). until the amendment of 1907 put the 
pension fund on a sound basis. 

Legislation of 1907— Law Amended and Public Funds Provided. 

It was through organization of the teachers in the Pension Delegate Con- 
vention and in the Legislature that the aiiiendment to the Pension Law, also 
the law granting Public Funds for Teachers' Pension, now being tested in the 
courts, were secured in 1907, by such leaders of the teachers as Miss Florence 
E. Tennerry, then President of the Federation, who sacrificed her life to secure 
this legislation. Miss Louie L. Kilbourn, ex-president of the Federation and 
now President of the Teachers' Pension Board, and other active and trained 
members of the Federation. 

Again this work was aided by the Board of Education and many individual 
]:)rincipals and high school teachers and others. 

One Thousand Teachers Become Contributors. 

It was through organized effort that more than 1,000 teachers who had 
stopped contributing to the pension fund when the law was made optional, again 
became contributors before the expiration of the time fixed by the new law, 
viz., December 31, 1907. 

Present Status of Fund. 

Through the Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Pension Fund, three of 
whom are from the Board of Education, and six elected from the teaching force 



by the teachers, the following data showing' the condition of the Pension Fund 
was published in October, 1908: 

Reserve Fund increased from $89,000 in October^, 1907, to $171,000 in 
October, 1908. 

Deductions from salaries increased from $3,604.75, June, 1907, to $8,876.50 
in June, 1908. 

Uniform annuities fixed by Pension Board under new law, $225 a year. 

[As we go to press, Judge Mack, in the Circuit Court of Cook County (Dec. 
I, 1908) has upheld the constitutionality of the law passed in 1907, granting the 
interest on ithe school money for the Chicago teachers' pension fund and sustain- 
ing the constitutionality of the principle involved, viz., that the use of public 
money for teachers' pensions is for a public purpose, including compulsory deduc- 
tions from salaries.] 

TEACHERS' SALARIES. 



Teachers Petition Board of Education. 

A petition to the Board of Education in 1897 signed by 3,568 teachers 
was secured and filed asking an increase in the salaries of the elementary 
teachers whose salaries had remained practically stationary for nearly twenty 
years. 

Increase Granted. 

As a result of this petition and the public sentiment aroused through the 
organized efforts of the teachers the Board of Education adopted the '98 salary 
schedule, increasing the maximum from $800 primary, and $825 grammar, to 
$1,000 for both, in March, 1898. 

$597,033.97 in Back Taxes Paid. 

Secured $597,033.97 in back taxes for the year 1900 through the tax suit of 
the Teachers' Federation, which amount was turned into the public treasury 
in July, 1902, $249,554.74 of this being the Board of Education's share. 

Injunction Granted Teachers. 

The Federation secured temporary injunction from Judge Tuley in July, 
1902, restraining the Board from using this $249,554.74 of back taxes for 1900 
except to restore cut of 1900 made in teachers' salaries. 

Teachers' Contract Upheld. 

Secured the decision of Judge Dunne, rendered in August, 1904, upholding 
Judge Tuley's injunction, sustaining the contention of the Federation in this 
back salary suit, viz., that the Board of Education has a contract with the 
teachers which cannot legally be broken by cutting salaries during the school 
year. 



Cut Kestored. 

Cut of $45 made in 1900 restored to each of 1,856 teachers in July, 1906, 
through the Federation's (back salary suit against the Board of Education, 
the Board having agreed to dismiss the suit and pay the money received from 
the back taxes. 

Four Millions Added to Treasury. 

Added to the public treasury approximately $600,000 in corporation fran- 
chise taxes every year for the last eight years, of which the Board of Education 
has received $250,000 annually, the result of the teachers' tax fight. 

$300 to Every Teacher from Tax Suit. 

As a result of the teachers' tax suit $250,000 in increases given to 5,000 
elementary teachers, in addition to their regular increases, in January, 1903; 
this was done by raising the salary fixed for every year of the schedule $50, 
from the first to the seventh years, both inclusive, and every year from the 
eighth to the tenth and beyond, $100 (for those who took the promotional ex- 
amination) thus making the maximum of the promotional group $1,000 instead 
of $900 at which it had been fixed only six months before (July 9, 
1902). By this action of the Board in raising the schedule, every elementary 
teacher in the system has been receiving an increase of at least $50 a year for 
the last six years, total $300, the direct result of the Federation's tax suit. (See 
schedules of July, '02 and January, '03, page 9-.) 

Teachers Vote Against Promotional Examinations. 

By a vote of 3,844 to 316 the elementary teachers in December, 1904, de- 
cided against the promotional examinations on a secret ballot submitted by the 
Chicago Teachers' Federation. 

Promotional Examination Abolished. 

Through the persistent organized efforts of the teachers, this promotional 
examination and the interdependent secret marking system were first modified 
in May, 1906, and then abolished in December, 1906. 

Study Courses Substituted. 

When the Board of Education in June, 1907, restored the secret marking, 
and promotional examination and salary grouping system, thereby cutting the 
salaries of 2,600 teachers, it re-adopted the modification of May, 1906, which 
provided for five study courses as an alternative for the promotional examina- 
tion. Some 2,200 of these 2,600 teachers, cut in June, 1907, have taken these 
study courses, and have advanced to the first group of salaries, which entitles 
them to an advance of $50 a year until the maximum of $1,025 is reached. 



o 



Federation's Educational Department. 

More than i,ooo teachers have taken lecture and study courses in the 
Educational Department of the Federation. Part of the work consisted of 
courses taken at the Art Institute in 1902-03, the value of which the Board 
of Education recognized when it accepted them for credit toward salary ad- 
vance, though the Normal Extension courses taken at the same time were not 
so recognized. 

Teachers' Official Advisory Organization Eiecommended by School Management 

Committee. 

The School Management Committee on May, 8, 1907, recommended to 
the Board of Education a plan for the official organization of the teaching 
force, investing it with advisory power and responsibility relative to executive, 
judicial and legislative action upon its own initiative or in response to requests 
from the Superintendent or the Board of Education. This recommendation 
was based on a plan of organization formed at the request of the School Man- 
agement Committee by the then existing system of Educational Councils. 

[A special meeting of the School Management Committee is to be held Dec. 
3rd to discuss the recommendation of the School Management Committee made 
to the Board May 8, 1907, providing for the official advisory organization of . 
teachers.] 

People Vote for Elected School Board. 

Through the assistance of the organized teachers a petition under the Public 
Policy Law was circulated and signed which provided for submitting in April, 
1904, the question of an elected Board of Education to the voters of Chicago. 
The people voted more than two to one in favor of an elected board. 

$2,500 in Death Benefits Distributed. 

The Mortuary Fund Department has paid out more than $2,500 in death 
benefits since the establishment of this department. 



SALARY INCREASE OF $300 

WHICH OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND 
OTHER OFFICIAL SOURCES SHOW THAT EVERY ELEMENTARY 
TEACHER IN CHICAGO HAS RECEIVED SINCE JANUARY, 1903, AS THE 
DIRECT RESULT OF THE TEACHERS' TAX SUIT. 

(Letter of President of Board of Education to Mayor.) 



July 7, 1903. 
Hon. Carter H. Harrison, 
City Hall, Chicago. 
Dear Sir: — I have yours of June 13th enclosing communi- 
cation from; Miss Catherine Goggin relative to an action brought 
by her to compel the Board of Education to dispose of a certain 
sum of money realized from the so-called Teachers' Federation 
tax suit in the manner indicated in the suit brought. * * * 
I am advised by the chairman of the then Finance Commit- 
tee [Mr. Clayton Mark] that when this sum was received a large 
increase was given to the teachers in the way of salaries, as far 
as the sum would go. 

[Signed] Graham H. Harris. 



Back Salary Suit Begun. 

When the City Council in July, 1902, appropriated its share of the taxes 
secured by the teachers to pay the cut in the salaries of policemen and firemen, 
and the Board of Education in the same week appropriated its share to repair 
buildings, pay coal bills, etc., some 1,600 teachers whose salaries had been 
cut in 1900 began suit against the Board of Education to restore the cut. 

Judge Tuley Grants Teachers Injunction. 

Judge Tuley on July 9, 1902, granted a temporary injunction restraining 
the Board from using its share of the back tax money for 1900 for any purpose 
except to restore the cut m'ade in the teachers' salaries in 1900. 

Salary Suit Postponed. 

Final hearing on this suit was fixed twelve different times in as many 
months and each time postponed at the request of the attorneys for the Board 
of Education. Finally, at the request of the Board of Education the case was 
taken away from Judge Tuley. It was finally tried before Judge Dunne who 
decided in favor of the teachers in August, 1904. 



Miss Goggin Asks Mayor Harrison "Why?" 

After a year of postponing the suit, Miss Goggin^ in June, 1903, wrote to 
Mayor Harrison and asked him why his Board of Education refused to settle 
the suit or allow it to be heard, and why these teachers who had secured this 
back tax money for 1900, did not have restored to them their cut in salaries made 
in 1900. 

The President of the Board of Education Answers. 

Mayor Harrison replied to this communication by sending Miss Goggin the 
foregoing letter from the then President of the Board of Education, Mr. Graham 
H. Harris, the original of which is on file in the office of the Federation. 

In this letter President Harris informs the Mayor that when the money 
realized from the Federation Tax Suit was received a large increase was given 
to the teachers in the way of salaries as far as the same would go. 

The increase was given in January, 1903, six months after the back tax money 
was received. 

Miss Addams Asks Mr. Clayton Mark ''Why?" 

Early in 1906 the Board of Education was considering dismissing the 
teachers' back salary suit and paying these teachers the 1900 salary cut in accord- 
ance with Judge Dunne's decision. At that time Miss Jane Addams, then 
member of the Board of Education, put to Mr. Clayton Mark, Chairman of the 
Finance Committee in 1902, and later President of the Board of Education, the 
same question that Miss Goggin had asked Mayor Harrison in her letter three 
years before ; that is, why the Board of Education did not give the teachers 
who were cut in 1900 the back tax money secured by them. 

Mr. Mark Answers. 

In reply to Miss Addams' question Mr. Mark said that the Board did not 
give this money to these teachers whose salaries had been cut because it did 
give it to all the teachers ; that the Board raised the salary of every elementary 
teacher as far as this back tax money would go. (See schedule adopted 
Jan., 1903, next page.) 

Every elementary teacher in the system has, therefore, received at least 
$50 a year since January, 1903, or a total of $300 in the last six years, as the 
direct result of the Teachers' Federation Tax Suit. 

This fact has received official recognition by the Board of Education as 
shown by the following excerpt from the official proceedings: 

"The fact must not be ignored that all primary and grammar grade teach- 
ers have since 1903 been receiving at least $50 a year more than they would 
have received had the schedule of 1902 remained in force. This was made 
possible, as explained above, as the result of the litigation instituted and carried 
to a successful close by the Chicago Teachers' Federation against the public 
utility corporations whereby the income of the Board was increased about $250- 
000 annually." 
(Report of School Management Committee adopted by the Board of Education, 

December 5, 1906. Proceedings of the Board of Education, p. 537.) 



WHAT 5,000 TEACHERS OWE TO ORGANIZATION AND 
THE TEACHERS' TAX FIGHT. 



FIVE SCHEDULES ADOPTED IN SEVEN YEARS. 



Schedule 
in force in 
1897, and 
for nearly 
20 years 
previous. 



1898 

schedule 

adopted on 

petition of 

3,658 teachers 

Mar., 1898. 



THREE SCHEDULES IN ONE YEAR. 



Oid schedule, 

in force prior 

to 1898, 

restored 

Jan., 1902. 

Reason given, 

funds short. 



Schedule 
adopted July 

9, 1902, 
establishing 
promotional 
examinations 
and grouping 

system. 



Schedule 
adopted Jan., 

1903, after 
teachers went 
into Courts 
and Federa- 
tion of Labor 



PRIMARY TEACHERS. 



GRAMMAR TEACHERS. 



1st • . . 


$500 


$500 


$500 


2nd . . 


550 


550 


550 


3rd . . 


625 


625 


625 


4th . . 


675 


675 


675 


5th . . 


725 


. 725 


725 


6th . . 


800 


800 


800 


7th . . 


825 


825 


825 


8th . . 


825 


900 


825 


9th . . 


825 


950 


825 


10th . . 


825 


1,000 


825 



2nd Group 

$500 
550 
625 
675 
725 
800 
825 

1st Group 

850 
875 
900 



875 

1st Group 

925 

975 
1,000 



Annual gain to 

every teacher 

for last six 

years on 
account of 
tax fight. 



Year 








2nd Gi'oup 


2nd Group 


2nd Group' 


1st . . 


$500 


$500 


$500 


$500 


$550 


$50 


2nd . . 


550 


550 


550 


550 


600 


50 


3rd . . 


575 


575 


575 


575 


625 


50 


4th . . 


650 


650 


650 


650 


700 


50 


5th . . 


700 


7oa 


700 


700 


750 


50 


6th . . 


775 


775 


775 


775 


825 


50 


7th . . 


800 


800 


800 


800 

1st Group 


850 

1st Groiip 


50 

1st Group 


8th . . 


800 


850 


800 


825 


900 


75 


9th . . 


800 


900 


800 


850 


950 


100 


10th . . 


800 


950 


800 


875 


1,000 


125 


11th . . 


800 


1,000 


800 


900 


1,000 


100 



2nd Group 


2nd Group 


$550 


$50 


600 


50 


675 


50 


725 


50 


775 


50 


850 


50 



50 

1st Group 

75 
100 
100 



$597,033.97 IN BACK TAXES FOR 1900 FORCED FROM THE CORPORA- 
TIONS AND TURNED INTO PUBLIC TREASURY BY 
THE TEACHERS IN JULY, 1902. 



WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT? 

Policemen's Cut Restored. 

The Folicemen had the cut made in their salaries in igo2 restored by the 
City Council in July, 1902, from the back taxes for 1900, secured by the teachers. 

Firemen's Cut Restored. 

The Firemen had the cut made in their salaries in 1902 restored by the City 
Council in July, 1902, from the back taxes for 1900 secured by the teachers. 

Teachers' Cut Restored? NO. 

The teachers, mostly women, did not have the cut made in their salaries in 
either 1900 or 1902 restored by the Board of Education. 

Why? 

Instead, the Finance Committee recommended, and on July 9, 1902, the 
Board of Education appropriated its share of the back taxes for 1900 secured 
by the teachers to pay coal bills, repair buildings, etc., though ithe appropria- 
tion in 1900 was made by the City Council with the express condition inserted 
that the cut in the teachers' salaries, made in 1900, should be restored. 

Back to Courts. 

In order to secure from the Board of Education any share in the benefits 
of the tax suit, conducted by the teachers at their own expense, the teachers 
were obliged to go into the courts again, this time against the Board of Edu- 
cation. 
EXCERPTS FROM LETTER OF MAYOR HARRISON TO CITY COUNCIL ON 

RESTORING CUT IN SALARIES OF POLICEMEN AND FIREMEN, 1902. 

Mayor's Office, June 30th, 1902. 
To the Honorable the City Council: Gentlemen — * * * 

The annual appropriation bill of the current year materially reduced the number of men 
to be employed in the police and fire departments. When it became necessary to lay off men 
in these two departments to meet the appropriations the men of their own motion asked 
that they be given vacations without pay for a period of time sufficient to make up the differ- 
ence, rather than see any of their fellows deprived of an opportunity to earn a living. This 
unfortunate condition was the result of the financial difficulties of the city. It was a condi- 
tion deeply deplored both by the members of your Committee on Finance and the members 
of your Honorable Body. It has since been your earnest desire, as well as the wish of the 
administration to right the wrong done the police and Hre departments at the earliest 
possible moment. Every possible expedient that might accomplish this purpose has been 
considered, but up to recent date all seemed unavailing. Now, however, the unexpected 
increase of the city's receipts from miscellaneous receipts'^ opens up an avenue of relief and 
it has become possible to pay the rank and file of the police and fire departments full pay 
for full time. * * * 

Whatever deficit may have existed in the annual appropriation bill may confidently be 
expected to be met by the back taxes from corporations, already awarded to the city by the 
local courts, as well as by the taxes of the same character now under adjudication in the 
federal courts. * * * 

I would suggest the reference of this communication to your Committee on Finance 
with instructions that it report at the next meeting of your Honorable Body an ordinance 
providing for full pay for the year for the full quota of men now on the pay rolls of the 
departments of iire and police. Respectfully, Carter H. Harrison, Mayor. 

In accordance with this communication (printed in full in the Council Proceedings, 
June 30, 1902, p. 744), the Council on July 7th, 1902 (p. 966), adopted ordinances appropriat- 
ing $483,000 to restore the salaries lost by the policemen and firemen. 



^Between Jan. 1 and July 1, 1902, the city received over $300,000 in corporation franchise 
taxes for 1900 and 1901 and a few months later over $150,000 more for 1902, all secured 
through the Teachers' Tax Suit. 

10 



WHY THE TEACHERS AFFILIATED WITH THE FEDERATION OF 

LABOR. 



TEACHERS' SALARIES CUT. 

The teachers' salaries were cut from $875 primary, $900 grammar, to $800 
and $825 respectively, in January, 1900. 
The reason given zvas lack of money. 
In the same month the Federation began the tax campaign. 

$597,033 SECTTRED BY TEACHERS. 

In July, 1902, $597,033 in back taxes for the year 1900 on the franchises 
of five Chicago public utility corporations, was turned in to the pubHc treasury, 
and a few months later an additional $600,000 taxes on these franchises was paid 
in for the year 1901. Not one dollar of franchise tax was paid by these corpora- 
tions in 1899. _^ 

NET LOSS OF 654 TEACHERS IN TWO YEARS. 

The official proceedings of the Board of Education show that the total 
number of teachers in the Chicago public schools was reduced from 5,885 in 
September, 1900, to 5,385 in September, 1902, an actual decrease of 500 teachers 
and a net loss in these two years of 654 teachers, as 154 teachers should have 
been added to take care of the increase of 6,190 children in these two years. 

CUT AGAIN AND SCHEDULE ABOLISHED. 

Not only did the 5,385 teachers retained in the system in 1902 have added 
to their labors the care of the additional pupils which would have been cared 
for by these 654, but 2,300 experienced teachers had their salaries cut again in 
January, 1902, their schedule abolished and salaries set back to a point where 
they had been for nearly twenty years (see schedule page 9) and lower than 
those of the stenographers, clerks, book-keepers and other office employees, 
lower even than the barn foreman employed by the Board of Education. 

[The proceedings of the Board — Nov. 25, 1908 — show that the laborers had 
their "wages" fixed at $960 for the year 1908 and 2,000 experienced teachers had 
their "salaries" fixed — January, 1908 — at $875 (primary) and $900 (grammar).] 

SECRET MARKING. 

To this additional burden was added the so-called "pro-motional" examina- 
tion based on a secret marking system, which the newspapers industriously ad- 
vertised as a "merit" system of "promotion," but which the teachers from its 
inception knew to be unjust, unfair and devoid of merit or promotion. 

<'MERIT" SYSTEM— WITHOUT MERIT. 
"Promotional" Examinations^and No Promotions, Merely Salary Advance. 

This system provided for salary advance after the seventh year of service 
for the teachers, who, under the secret marking system, had attained a certain 

11 



mark, and who passed a re-examination in the same subjects in which they were 
examined before coming into the schools. The term "promotional" applied to 
this examination was misleading as it did not involve any promotion or change 
of position in any respect whatever, and those who received the increased salary 
after passing the re-exammation, continued to do the same work, in the same 
room, same grade, and side by side with the same teachers whose efficiency as 
known to the teachers and as shown by the official records, was equal and fre- 
quently superior to those who had passed the examination, and whose experience 
and grade of work was the same, the only difference being that the one who 
passed the examination received the larger salary.* 

EXAMINATION PAPERS BURNED. 

Any candidate who was unsuccessful in the "promotional" examination and 
whose average was 70 had the privilege of attending a public revision of his 
papers. No candidate, whose paper was below 70, was permitted to attend the 
revision or allowed to see her papers and the official notice to candidates stated 
that "After the day of revision all answer papers will be destroyed." 

SPRUNG ON TEACHERS. 

This "promotional" examination scheme was sprung on the teachers with- 
out notice and adopted by the Board of Education under a suspension of the 
rules, on recommendation of the Finance Committee and without consideration 
by the School Management Committee, in the first week of vacation on July 9, 
1902, though the Board of Education received in 1902 more than $500,000 in 
taxes for 1900 and 1901 from the Federation tax suit. 



*From the first the teachers knew of these injustices and inequities, but the public 
did not until they were revealed by the exhaustive official examination made by the 
Lv^diu ui jiiducation in the fall of 1906, when the whole system of secret marking was abol- 
ished on Dec. 5th, 1906, by the adoption of the Post report. It was re-enacted in June, 
1907, when the Board appointed by Mayor Busse rescinded the Post report. 



AT THE CLOSE OF MORE THAN TWO YEARS OF LABOR 
THE TEACHERS FOUND: 

The public funds increased by their efforts $1,250,000. 
Their salaries again decreased (twice in two years). 
The 1900 cut not restored. 

Their schedule abolished and their "salaries" set back where 
they had been for nearly twenty years. 
The cost of living- raised. 

Their standard of living consequently lowered. 
A net reduction of 654 teachers in the system in two years. 
School rooms overcrowded in consequence. 
The strain on every teacher increased. 
Their professional usefulness impaired. 
12 



"PRACTICAL" ECONOMIES— PETTY PERSECUTIONS. 

Entire Salary Deducted — 

For time lost on account of sickness (1902). 

For time lost by closing schools one week (Sept., 1900). 

For Labor Day (1902). 

For Visiting Day (1902). 

SECRET MARKING SYSTEM. 

Teachers humiliated, harassed, irritated and terrorized by a 
secret marking system that affected their tenure of office, salaries 
and right to preferment [still in effect with increasing irritation]. 

Money prizes to the few offered as motive and reward for 
cramming for re-examinations, to the detriment of children and 
teachers. 

Their attitude toward this so-called "merit" system of "pro- 
motion" misrepresented by the press, misunderstood and misjudged 
by pulpit and public. 

This unjust system of salary advance a source of constant ir- 
ritation, dividing the teachers, the effect, if not the purpose, being 
to lessen the possibility of co-operation against the common enemy, 
~ the taxdodger. 

SCHOOL SYSTEM AN AUTOCRACY. 

No properly constituted tribunal within the educational sys- 
tem for hearing or redressing grievances. 

Teachers "subject to dismissal at any time with or without 
cause, at the pleasure of the Board" [still in effect]. 

Lack of freedom; in consequence, loss of power of initiative, 
originality and invention, as well as individuality and personality 
in teachers and children. 

Silent subserviency, conformity and uniformity the tests of 
fitness to survive in an educational system administered as an autoc- 
racy and expected to prepare citizens for a democracy — "one mind 
with a thousand hands." 

Outward submission, inward rebellion. 

Spirit of unrest pervading the entire system. 

NO EDUCATIONAL COUNCILS. 

"No official and constitutional provision for submitting ques- 
tions of methods of discipline and teaching, and the questions of the 
course of study, text-books, etc., to the discussion and decision of 
those actually engaged in the work of teaching. ' ' 

The Teachers' Representative Educational Councils without 
official recognition, their usefulness and very existence threatened 
[and since destroyed]. 

Recognition of the teachers as educators denied. 

13 



Their professional standards, ideals and opinions ignored and 
set aside. 

Hand-me-down intellectual suits, worn by others, and ready- 
made educational uniforms, passed on to teachers and children — 
educational misfits and intellectual straight jackets. 

No stimulation or inspiration to real educational progress. 

"Red Tape" and "The System"— always. 

The children — whenever you can. 

PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION— REWARD— RESULT. 

Normal course increased to three years (Apr. 2, 1902). 

Graduates of Normal compelled to serve as "cadets" without 
salary, from one to three years before appointment as teachers, the 
$20 a month previously paid while "cadeting" cut off in January, 
1902. 

After ten years' experience as teachers, paid less for training 
the minds of fifty children than the girls in the office of the Board 
of Education received for manipulating one typewriter, or the bam 
foreman in the barns of the Board of Education in charge of its 
horses. 

[Graduates from the Normal school fell from 466 in 1899 to 
69 in 1904 and Board of Education advertised for teachers outside 
of Chicago, and lowered the standard of entrance qualifications and 
examinations to secure teachers.] 

THE WOMEN TEACHERS FOUND THEMSELVES:— 

Constituted by law political nonentities, and classed with the insane, idiots, 
criminals, Indians and children. 

Charged with incompetency to exercise the duties of citizenship, and at the 
same time with the responsibility of training for citizenship. 

Forced by the logic of the pay-roll to accept the estimate of the comparative 
value of the teachers' services to the community with those of the teamsters and 
laborers employed by the Board of Education, the superiors of the teachers — 
"according to the law and the profits" the American standard of measurement. 

Forced to go out and perform the duties which primarily devolved upon 
the tax levying bodies of the Sitate, and secondarily upon the Board of Education ; 
and out of their own limited resources to see that the tax levying officers of the 
State collected the taxes honestly belonging to the sacred school fund of this com- 
munity, and which with the connivance of the sworn officers of the law charged 
with the collection of the same were being dishonestly held by tax avoiding — 
quasi public corporations; while the Board of Education sat supinely by, and 
while other public officials, more especially charged with the levy and collection 
of these taxes, refused to perform their sworn duty. 

(Judge Dunne in decision rendered Aug. 22, 1904, in Teachers' Back Salary 
Suit vs. Chicago Board of Education.) 

Forced to go into the courts on behalf of 2,300 teachers whose wages had 
been withheld, to compel the Board of Education to recognize and to live up to 
its contract, which it had twice broken in two years. 

14 



Forced to affiliate with the Chicago Federation of Labor to secure reUef 
for themselves, for the children, for the community, from the foregoing intolerable 
conditions in the schools. 

Conditions more harmful to the children than to the teachers ; 

Conditions fifty-fold more harmful to the community as a whole than to the 
teachers as a body, because fifty children were victims of these conditions for 
every teacher. 

The Superintendent of Schools on November 1, 1908, Received an inviltation 
from the Chicago Federation of Labor to come before their body on Nov. 14, 
1908, to speak on a particular question connected with the public schools ; and, 
speaking as Superintendent of Schools and as a guest of the Chicago Federation 
of Labor on Nov. 15, 1908, Mr. E. G. Cooley said: 

"I realize that no one is as much interested in these schools as the men you 
represent." 

The Chicago Teachers' Federation on Nov. 7, 1902, Received an invitation 
from the Chicago Federation of Labor asking "the Chicago. Teachers' Federation 
to give to the 200,000 affiliated working men- and voters of Chicago, the right to 
take up the cause of the teachers and children in the only way that it can be done, 
prompi-ly and effectively, — that is, by affiliating and sending representatives to 
the Chicago Federation of Labor, with power to act for your body, and present 
your wrongs and those of the children." And 

Realizing, on November 7, 1902, that no one is so much interested in these 
schools as the men the Chicago Federation of Labor represents, that the men the 
Federation of Labor represents are the men whose children are not only in the 
public schools now, but must remain in these schools whatever the conditions in 
them, whether they be parts of an educational or a factory system ; 

Realizing that the Chicago Federation of Labor, mostly men, is representa- 
tive of the largest organized body of voters interested in the public schools through 
their children, not their pockets; interested in the teachers as teachers of their 
children and as co-workers with themselves in that larger school, the community, 
where no worker can get full justice for himself while any, even the least, is 
denied justice: 

Realizing that the intolerable conditions in the schools are the effects of 
unjust social, economic, industrial and political conditions which can be remedied 
only through organization and the ballot, 

The Chicago Teachers' Federation, Mostly Women, educated m the school 
of the foregoing experiences and with every other avenue of approach to the com- 
munity closed to them. 

Accepted the invitation of the Chicago Federation of Labor (printed be- 
low), and on Nov. 7, 1902, sent delegates to sit in the councils of the Chicago 
Federation of Labor, 

AND THEN— THE PUBLIC WOKE UP !— AND THEN— 
WHAT HAPPENED. 

TEACHERS' SALARIES RAISED. 

Two months after the Chicago Teachers' Federation affiliated with the 
Chicago Federation of Labor, and three months before the last election of 

15 



Carter Harrison as Mayor, viz., in January, 1903, the Chicago Board of Edu- 
cation gave a raise of $50 a year to each of the 5,000 elementary teachers in 
the system — 

TOTAL, $250,000, 

The annual increase in corporation taxes secured through the Teachers' 
Tax Suit. 

This increase was effected by adding $50 to every year of the elementary 
teachers' schedule which had been adopted only six months previously, viz., 
July 9, 1902. 

The promotional maximum of $900, also adopted only six months previous- 
ly was increased to $1,000. 

Every elementary teacher in the system has, therefore, received at least 
$50 a year, for six years, total, $300, the result of this raise in the schedule in 
January, 1903. 

VOTE FOR ELECTED BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

The people of Chicago voted for an elected Board of Education by a vote 
of two to one in April, 1904, less than eighteen months after the Teachers' Fed- 
eration affiliated with the Chicago Federation of Labor. 

LETTER OF MR. JOHN FITZPATRICK INVITING THE CHICAGO TEACHERS' 
FEDERATION TO AFFILIATE WITH ORGANIZED LABOR. 

To the Chicago Teachers' Federation: 

The working people of Chicago admire the splendid fight the Teachers' 
Federation, alone and unaided by any other organization, is making in behalf of 
the schools against the tax-dodging corporations. 

From our long experience in such matters we have realized from the first 
that the corporations would not fail to retaliate by trying either to disrupt the 
Teachers' Federation or destroy its usefulness. 

As they were unable to accomplish either, it seems they have determined to 
harass the teachers at any cost, even if they must destroy the usefulness of the 
schools in so doing, and create such conditions that the teachers will be unable to 
do their work. 

On the children of to-day rests the future of this country. All our efforts 
are for them, so that they may receive an education that will enable them to cope 
with conditions in the future. The only one who stands between the child and 
corporate greed in the schools to-day is the teacher. 

The teachers of Chicago have proven themselves not wanting in this re- 
spect. The time has come for the workingmen of Chicago to take a stand for 
their children's sake, and demand justice for the teachers and the children so 
that both may not be crushed by the power of corporate greed. 

We also realize that all the power of concentrated wealth is being used to 
stop the work of the teachers in demanding adequate revenue for the schools 
through the just taxation of coirporations. 

16 



Fully realizing this the Chicago Fedieration of Labor earnestly asks the 
Chicago Teachers' Federation to give to the 200,000 affiliated workingmen and 
voters of Chicago, the right to take up the cause of the teachers and children 
in the only way that it can be done promptly and eifectively,— that is, by affiiU- 
ating and sending representatives to the Chicago Federation of Labor, with 
power to act for your body, and present your wrongs and those of the children. 

In order to settle any misapprehension in regard to the Chicago Federation 
of Labor it may be well to state a few facts concerning its policy. 

The Chicago Federation of Labor has no power under its constitution to 
call a strike. It is opposed to strife and always tries to prevent it, gaining the 
contested point through arbitration or "moral suasion." 

The Chicago Federation of Labor cannot dictate the policy of any affiliated 
organization. The organizations conduct their own business in their own way. 

It is the great underlying principle of liberty that spurs the Chicago. Fed- 
eration of Labor on to secure freedom of thought and action for all people. 

Its aim is to assist in securing better conditions for humanity; surely this 
is a highly altruistic motive. 

Assuring you that the whole strength of the Chicago Federation of Labor 
will be used that the teachers and children may be permitted to do their work 
as they should, I am, Sincerely yours, 

John Fitzpatrick, 

Organizer, A. F. of L. 

Oct. 16, 1902. 



TEACHERS IN TRADES-UNION'S. 

, {Reprinted from Teachers' Federation Bulletin, Nov. 14, 1902.) 

Within the past week the Chicago Federation of Teachers has taken one of 
the most important steps in its bistoury. This was affiliation with the Federation 
of Labor. 

The Chicago teachers have come full well to know what political domination 
of the school means. They have come full well to know how great is the greed 
of corporate power and to what length the tax-dodger will go to serve his selfish 
ends. It has been forcibly impressed upon them^ how the avariciousness of this 
element will even reach out to filch from the public school, the bulwark of true 
citizenship. Realizing this the teachers have taken their stand with the unions, 
whose cause after all is their cause, and who are fighting the same battle on the 
same lines. 

The teachers have by this step brought to their call a powerful force which 
will lend instant aid to every move for better conditions in the schools. A demand 
from the teachers means more than ever now, and political power will hesitate to 
deprive the schools of their due where such action was easy before. 

Trades-unionism gains in the acquisition of the teachers a body of the highest 
moral and intellectual worth, one which may be depended upon to fill a place on 
the firing line in the battle for the toilers' rights.— Rockf or d Star, Sunday, Nov. 
II, 1902. 

17 



CHICAGO TEACHERS' FEDERATION AFFILIATES WITH LABOR. 

Report of Meeting of Nov. 8, 1902. 
{Reprinted from Chicago Teachers' Federation Bulletin, Nov. 14, 1902.) 

The Federation at its November meeting took the most important step in its 
history since the inauguration of the tax crusade. 

After five weeks' deliberation and two meetings devoted to a discussion of 
this subject, the Federation decided to ask for admission into the Chicago Fed- 
eration of Labor. The meeting was addressed by Miss Jane Addams, who, h^ 
unanimous vote of the special meeting held on October 18, was invited to present 
her views on this subject. Miss Addams spoke in a calm and judicial spirit, 
giving reasons for and against the proposed affiliation, answering all questions 
presented so far as possible from her own experience of organized labor, with 
which she is identified as an honorary member of several women's trade unions. 
In response to a direct question Miss Addams expressed her opinion that the 
proposed union between the Chicago Teachers' Federation and the Chicago Fed- 
eration of Labor would be a move in the right direction. Miss Addams dwelt 
upon the altered ideals of education, which are tending to raise the appreciation 
of manual labor, and also upon the conditions which have made it seem necessary 
to the teachers of Chicago to federate for their own protection. She explained 
that the strike and the boycott are measures which are under the control of the 
local union, not of the Federation of Labor ; and that sympathetic strikes are also 
voluntary on the part of each local union. 

PRESIDENT OF WISCONSIN STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION ON 
TEACHERS IN LABOR UNIONS. 

{Reprinted from Federation Bulletin, Jan. 23, 1903.) 

The teacher should not wait for public conscience to bring about better con- 
ditions. This association has spent the first fifty years of its life endeavoring to 
improve the schools; let this work never cease. It has called upon you yearly to 
give three days of your holiday vacation to its sessions that you may learn how- 
to work harder and better when you go back to your school. May this continue ! 
It has, however, done little to improve the fortunes of its members. But let us 
hereafter steadily and intelligently give some part of our time to the betterment 
of our own conditions. God helps those that help themselves. 

I see the sun of a better day already rising. The profound interest the press 
is beginning to take in the teacher's material good is prophetic. 

The coming fifty years should bring a larger freedom to the competent 
teacher ; freedom to serve the pupils' highest needs and to. follow the truth, with- 
out fear of political interference, sectarian bigotry, commercial insolence, early 
dismissal or old-age poverty. 

But there is a higher form of liberty still, for it makes possible the first. 
There was a time when I thought that freedom in teaching was better than fine 
gold, buit I see today that all forms of liberty are in a strange way based upon 
the conditions of employment. This is as true for the teacher as for the laboring 
m.an. Both are entitled to humane conditions, and neither has them. I am not 
• - 18 



at all surprised that the grade teachers of Chicago should cast their, fortunes not 
with politicians, not with the rich, not with the press or the pulpit — the latter 
are beginning to fight for ithem — but with the labor unions. For are they not 
upon the same wage basis? Hired by the year, working under the control of 
another's will, receiving small pay in the presence of immense wealth; insecure 
in their position and likely to be discarded at any time like worn-out machinery ; 
the specter of old-age poverty constantly before them. With true insig*ht, such 
as only a woman possesses, they saw that their problem, like nearly every vital 
problem, rested upon the so-called labor question, the problem O'f how to secure 
the proceeds of one's labor. — Extract from Address of President Karl Mathie, 
Milwaukee, Dec, 1902. 

LETTEE PROM A SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS ON TEACHERS IN 

LABOR UNIONS. 

(Reprinted from Federation Bulletin, Nov. 2S, 1902.) 

Office of Superintendent of Schools, 

Morris, Minn., Nov. 16, 1902. 
Miss Margaret Haley, Chicago : 

My Dear Miss Haley : I was glad in my heart when I read your words in the 
last Bulletin concerning the affihation of the Teachers' Organization with Labor 
Unions, It is not merely expedient and wise that there should be affiliation ; it is 
essential to the right development of our educational system that there be a real 
recognition of the brotherhood between those who iteach and those who best rep- 
resent the interests of those for whom our public schools really exist. 

If teachers could only see more clearly that the life problems of the miner 
and iron worker, etc., are really the very problems that confront them daily and 
that continually help exhaust the strength that is not used in work, how gladly 
would they seek affiliation with labor unions quite as earnestly as they ever seek 
to establish friendly relations with those who possess the conventional culture and 
the means to it. The economic relation of the teacher will come through the 
wage earner, not through the wealth holding classes who patronize education and 
teachers, but exert their influence unconsciously in many ways to keep the world 
forever the same. 

It is not merely that the teacher will be aided by the wage earner in securing 
conditions more favorable to the best work, it is not thus that education is to 
receive its greatest benefit from a real affiliation of teachers with those who live 
by sale of their labor. Through real affiliation will come to the teachers such a 
knowledge of ithe life of the workers and such a sympathy with them as educators 
have never possessed in the history of the world. Then educational methods, 
courses of study and organization oi schools will be modified Ito suit the real needs 
of those for whom the schools exist. 

Will we not some day have a great educational reformer who will tell us to 
study — not the child, it we have been told to study — but the life for which chil- 
dren must be fitted? How bookish (or newspaperish) is the knowledge and how 
volatile is the sympathy of teachers for those who are living the life for which 
they must fit their pupils. Yet the teacher's desire to have no more work than 
she can do well and to have the means and the strength to develop her powers 

19 



for better work and her desire that she may be sure of a respectable living when 
misfortune or age or over- work shall render her unable to do good work, should 
enable her to really understand, in both heart and head, very much that has found 
expression in the demands and regulations of labor unions. As soon as her atten- 
tion is seriously iturned to these things she will begin to understand. A truer 
conception *of culture as knowledge of human life and its conditions will displace 
the aristocratic ideals that now too often do as much to make her unhappy as to 
make her useful. Then perhaps all teachers will become teachers in deed as all 
mediaeval workmen were artists in spirit. Then all will work in freedom and yet 
work hard because of great love for their work. It seems to me that teachers 
now are often only factory girls in the educational factory and supervisors are 
only foremen. Yet both would like to be teachers if they could only find the way. 

Pardon me this lengthy letter that so poorly expresses what I would so gladly 
see well expressed and then repeated a thousand times. You are right. Go ahead. 

Yours very truly, 

[Supt. of Schools.] S.ELDEN F. .Smyser. 

WHAT THE CHICAGO TEACHERS' FEDERATION AIMS TO SECURE. 

OBJECT. 

The object of this organisation shall he to raise the stand- 
ard of the teaching profession by securing for teachers con- 
ditions essential to the best professional service, and to this end 
to obtain for them all the rights and benefits to which they are 
entitled; the consideration and study of such subjects as the 
Federation may deem necessary; the consideration and support 
of the Pension Law; the study of parliamentary law. — Consti- 
tution of Chicago Teachers' Federation. 

ENTRANCE QUALIFICATIONS. 

Such a standard of scholarship and professional attainments, as entrance 
requirements, demanded of all candidates for appointments as will insure the 
service against the permanent appointment of the unscholarly and professionally 
incompetent and unfit, this to be secured by, 

(a) Examination or other equivalent educational test before appointment 
on probation. 

(b) Period of probation before permanent appointment under supervision 
competent to recognize and encourage scholarship and professional ability and 
with authority to eliminate the incompetent after reasonable trial in at least three 
different schools. 

TENURE OF OFFICE AND EFFICIENCY. 

Repeal of Rule 190. 

Repeal of Rule 190 of the Board of Education, abolished in December, 1906, 
and re-enacted in June, 1907. This rule provides that "Teachers shall be subject 
to removal at any time with or without cause at the pleasure of the Board." 

20 



Adoption of Following Instead. 

After a probationary period all appointments to be permanent during effi- 
ciency and good behavior. 

Inefficient teachers to be eliminated from the service after having had a 
reasonable opportunity for improvement and a trial on written charges before a 
properly constituted tribiinaL 

Repeal of Secret Marking System. 

Abolition of the present secret marking system and promotional examina- 
tion and other extraneous tests and requirements of certified culture. 

Adoption of Following Instead. 

After perm.anent appointment actual work in school room, under supervi- 
sion competent to recognise scholarship and professional ability in and through 
such work, to be the only test of a teacher's efficiency. 

All efficient teachers to be entitled to and to receive the regular annual in- 
crease of salary till maximum in salary schedule is reached. 

"Efficient teachers" to be held to mean all teachers against whom no charge 
of inefficiency or unfitness has been proven. 

SALARY SCHEDULE. 

All elementary teachers to receive not less than $i,ooo for seventh year, 
and an annual increase of $ioo thereafter until the maximum of $1,500 is reached. 

STABLE SALARY FUND. 

A separate fund to be used exclusively for pajanent of teachers' salaries, 
said fund to be not less than a certain fixed percentage of assessed valuation of 
property in Chicago, as now provided in the New York City Charter. 

PENSION FUND. 

Public funds for teachers' pension fund. 

ADVISORY EDUCATIONAL COUNCILS. 

Adoption by the Board of Education of the report of the School Manage- 
ment Committee recommended to the Board on May 8, 1907, and providing for 
official advisory organization of the teaching force. 

Object. — To provide a means of growth and educational advancement 
through interchange of ideas, and to give the school system the benefit of the 
experience of those actually engaged in the work of teaching. 

Duty. — To discuss questions and methods of discipline and teaching, courses 
of study, text-books and equipment, and all other questions bearing on the work 
of the teacher or affecting the progress and development of the schools, and to 
make recommendations on same to superintendent and board of education. 

All findings and recommendations of the councils to be made a matter of 
record in the official proceedings of the board of education. 

Definite provision to be made for time within the regular school hours for the 
meetings of the councils. 

21 



ELECTED BOARD OF EDUCATION. 



Elected by the people; nominations to be by petition; elections at large (in- 
stead of by wards) ; women to have the ri^ht to sign nomination petitions and 
to vote for members of the Board. 

MAXIMUM NUMBER OP PUPILS. 

The maximum number of pupils to each teacher not to exceed forty, to be 
secured without interfering with teachers' salaries or increasing the burden of the 
honest taxpayers. 

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY CHICAGO TEACHERS' FEDERATION— 
40 CHILDREN TO A TEACHER— NOV. 14, 1908. 

WHEREAS, The Board of Education, at its meeting Nov. 4, 1908, adopted 
a report of the Superintendent granting him authority to reduce the number of 
pupils to a room in the elementary schools to forty, and 

WHEREAS, The Superintendent in this report states that it seems de- 
sirable to work toward securing forty pupils to a teacher as rapidly as possible 
but that to reduce the membership of each school room to forty pupils at the 
present time would require an addition of over five hundred teachers to the force 
with an additional expenditure for salaries alone of about half a million dollars, 
and that the number of pupils per teacher cannot be reduced except at the ex- 
pense of teachers' salaries unless the funds available for salaries of teachers is 
very greatly increased, and 

WHEREAS, The President of the Board of Education on October 20th 
stated to a committee of the Chicago Teachers' Federation who waited on him 
in the interest of securing funds to reduce the memberships without decreasing 
salaries, that under the present condition of the school finances the number of 
children to a teacher cannot be reduced without reducing the salaries or having 
a deficit at the end of the year and that he would not stand for a deficit, and 

WHEREAS, The report of the Superintendent adopted Nov. 4, 1908, 
appears to indicate a slight advance in lowering memberships to a teacher by 
a net gain of 210 teachers in the last four years, as against the net loss of 654 
teachers in the two years from Sept. 1900, to September, 1902, and the Super- 
intendent's report shows further that this apparent advance in lowering mem- 
berships in the last four years has been at the expense of desirable advances 
in teachers' salaries, and 

WHEREAS, The Superintendent in his report also states that he is of 
the opinion that forty pupils are enough for any elementary teacher to teach 
successfully, and 

WHEREAS, It is unfair and unjust to teachers and pupils and to the 
honest tax-paying public to hold teachers responsible for the successful teaching 
of from fifty to sixty pupils, which the majority of the teachers have, or to 
have the number in each room reduced at the expense of the teachers' salaries, 
therefore, 

RESOLVED, That the President of the Chicago Teachers' Federation 
appoint a committee of five in accordance with the recommendation of the mass 
meeting held at Handel Hall, Oct. 23, 1908, to meet a like committee appointed 
by the Chairman of that meeting, the President of the Illinois Tax Reform 
League, for the purpose of finding ways and means of reducing the number of 
children to a room in the schools without interfering with the teachers' salaries 
or regular increases and without adding to the taxes of the already over-burdened 
honest tax payers. 

22 



- 1 



3477-79 - c 



REPORT or COMMITTEE OF THE CHICAGO TEACHERS' FEDERATION AP- 
POINTED TO WAIT ON PRESIDENT SCHNEIDER IN REGARD 
TO INCREASING SCHOOL REVENUE. 

Adopted November 14, 1908. 

Your committee appointed to wait upon the President of the Board of Edu- 
cation, Mr. Otto C. Schneider, for the purpose of inviting him to address the 
Mass Meeting at Handel Hall, October 23, 1908, under the auspices of the 
Chicago Teachers' Federation, called for the purpose of finding ways and means of, 
Reducing the number of children to a teacher 
Without lowering" teachers' salaries, or 
Interfering with the regular increases, and 
Without adding to the burdens of the tax payers, 

Reports, That President Schneider, in declining the invitation, said that he 
did so for the reason that it involved a criticism of the taxing system, and that 
he could not undertake to discuss so weighty a subject on such short notice. 

The President assured the committee that he was in entire sympathy with 
the teachers in their endeavors to secure increased revenue and suggested that 
they get some books on income tax, study the subject and then make a fight in 
the legislature for new tax laws, including a graduated income tax. 

President Schneider also stated that while he was in favor of a smaller num- 
ber of children in each room he would never consent to the reduction at the 
expense "of the teachers' salaries, and that in the present condition of school 
finances, the num.ber of children to a teacher cannot be reduced without reducing 
salaries or having a deficit at the end of the year; and that he would not stand for 

a deficit. 

RECOMMENDATION. 

Your Committee Recommends, That President Schneider's suggestion in 
regard to legislation providing for an income tax be acted upon, and that a com- 
mittee be appointed to prepare an amendment to the Illinois Constitution provid- 
ing for a Graduated Income Tax. In this connection 

Your Committee Presents the accompanying copy of an amendment to the 
Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, adopted by a vote of the people ait the 
recent election held November 3, 1908, and sent on request to your committee by 
tlie State Secretary of Wisconsin : 

AMENDMENT. 

"Taxes may also be imposed on. incomes, privileges and occupations, which 
taxes may be graduated and progressive and reasonable exemptions may be pro- 
vided." 

Your committee further recommends, that the other suggestion of Presi- 
dent Schneider in regard to text books on taxation be adopted and recommends 
the following books suggested by Mr. Louis F. Post in his address at the Handel 
Hall Mass Meeting October 23, 1908: 

Prof. Ely's "Taxation in American Cities and States" and 

Thomas G. Shearman's "Natural Taxation." 

Frances E. Harden, Chairman, 
May Freeman, 
Anna Waldschmidt, 
Elizabeth Buiimann. 

23 






AS TO THE TEACHER.— If there is a single public school system in the United 
States where there is o£&cial and constitutional provision made for submitting 
questions of methods of discipline and 'teaching, and the questions of the curricu- 
lum, text-books, etc., to the discussion and decision of those actually engaged in 
the work of teaching, that fact has- escaped my notice. Indeed, the opposite situa- 
tion is so common that it seems, as a rule, to be absolutely taken for granted as the 
normal and final condition of affairs. The number of persons to whom any other 
course has occurred as desirable, or even possible — to say nothing of necessary — is 
apparently very limited. But until the public school system is organized in such 
a way that every teacher has some regular and representative way in which he or 
she can register judgment upon matters of educational importance, with the assur- 
ance that this judgment will somehow affect the school system, the assertion that 
the present system is not, from the internal standpoint, democratic seems to be 
justified. Either we come here upon some fixed and inherent limitation of the dem- 
ocratic principle, or else we find in this fact an obvious discrepancy between the 
conduct of the school and the conduct of social life — a discrepancy so great as to 
demand immediate and persistent effort at reform. 



AS TO BOTH TEACHER AND PUPIL.— The school has lagged behind the 
general contemporary social movement; and much that is unsatisfactory, much of 
conflict and of defect, comes from the discrepancy between the relatively undemo- 
cratic organization of the school, as it affects the mind of both teacher and pupil, 
and the growth and extension of the democratic principle in life beyond school 
doors. 

The remedy of the partial evils of democracy, the implication of the school 
system in municipal politics, is in appeal to a more thoroughgoing democracy. 

The remedy is not to have one expert dictating educational methods and 
subject-matter to a body of passive, recipient teachers, but the adoption of intel- 
lectual initiative, discussion, and decision throughout the entire school corps. 

For no matter how wise, expert, or benevolent the head of the school system, 
the one-man principle is autocracy. 

The logic which commits the reformer to the idea that the management of 
the school system must be in the hands of an expert commits him also to the idea 
that every member of the school system, from the first-grade teacher to the prin- 
cipal of the high school, must have some share in the exercise of educational 
power. 

DR. JOHN DEWEY, 
In the Elementary School Teacher, Dec, 1903. 
Columbia University. 



EARNINGS IN TEACHING AND OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 

In a showing' of the average weekly earnings of municipal laborers on 
street and sewer work, and the minimum salary paid women teachers in ele- 
mentary schools in 48 cities in various parts of the country, on the basis of 50 
weeks during the year, the earnings of the laborers in nearly every city exceed 
those of the lowest paid elementary teachers. 

In many cases the laborer's pay is greatly in excess of the teachers' mini- 
mum. The wages of the laborers here given represent the earnings of the 
commonest untrained laborer, while in scarcely any city of importance can a 
man or woman secure a position as teacher without some previous experience or 
special preparation. 

Both classes of employes are paid by the same employer — the municipality. 

(Report of Special Committee of the National Educational Association, on 
salaries, Tenure of Office and Pensions of Public School Teachers in the United 
States, July, 1905.) 

24 



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